John Mateer is working out in a way most quarterbacks don’t, and some of the videos are hilariously awesome
Sooners quarterback John Mateer is having a bit of fun.
John Mateer is determined to lead the Oklahoma Sooners past last season’s outcome, when they hosted a College Football Playoff game but ultimately fell to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Head coach Brent Venables sees Mateer as the key player who can take them further. He aspires to reach the heights exemplified by the Hoosiers. To get there, they will need to get the absolute most out of Mateer. The soon-to-be second-year Sooners QB knows that. He’s coming back with vengeance on his mind and the thought that he has to get the Sooners over the hump.
Mateer is a workhorse, and he’s already showing that this offseason. Notably, he was seen in an Instagram video performing specific gymnastics moves, including the Iron Cross, parallel bar swings, and a backflip. These exercises target core strength, balance, and flexibility. Some techniques that gymnasts use—such as flexibility and mobility work—can benefit football players as well. Having covered the Kansas City Chiefs for years, I’ve noticed that quarterback Patrick Mahomes also includes flexibility training in his workouts, highlighting its importance.
We don’t get a clear view of the workouts he’s doing in the videos. We don’t see that he’s doing flexibility stuff, but that, along with the core workouts they do, is great for football players. Maybe it’s just all for fun. However, the Iron Cross and Pbar swings he is doing are core workouts, even if you’re doing them for fun. They’re much harder than you would think. Just doing them is considered a workout. Not to mention, now he can do a backflip.
The Sooners will need Mateer at his best next season, so there’s much more to work on.
What Mateer needs to work on in the offseason
In the first few games of the season, Mateer was elite. There were some things he still needed to clean up, but he was a Heisman candidate and even led the race at one point. After breaking his thumb on his throwing hand, things changed. He became unconfident in himself and his ability to throw the ball.
That then changed the way he looked at things. It affected how he read defenses and processed things on the fly. Mateer would find himself making the same bad mental plays over and over again. But he still found ways to do just the smallest of things needed to win games, even if it was ugly. Going into this next season, he’s got to work on getting his confidence back up.
Some of the footwork in the pocket has to be better, too. Please, no more of those weird jump passes that just threw everything off. The arm mechanics are fine as long as the ball gets to where it’s supposed to be. However, the footwork can’t be bad, as it can mess everything up. If Mateer comes in better than he was last season, Oklahoma is going to be a team that no one wants to play.
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